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Soldiers' and Sailors' Historical Society 

OF RHODE ISLAND. 



PERSONAL NARRATIVES: 

Fourth Series, No. 1. 



FROM MONOCACY TO DANVILLE. 

ALFRED S, ROE. 



PERSONAL NARRATIVES 



OF EVENTS IN THE 



War OF THE Rebellion, 



BEING PAPEKS READ BEFORE THE 



RHODE ISLAND SOLDIERS AND SAILORS 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



Fourth Series -No. l. 



providence: 

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETV. 

1889. 



615G5 



Snow & Fabnham, Pkintebs. 

37 Custom House Street, 
1889. 



4 



FROM MONOCACY TO DANVILLE: 



A Trip with the Confederates. 



BY 

ALFEED S. ROE, 



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[Late Private, Company A, Ninth New York Heavy Artillery Volunteers.] 



PROVIDENCE: 
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 

1889. 



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[Edition limited to two hundred and fifty copies.] 



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FROM MONOCACY TO DANVILLE. 



Captured in battle on Saturday, the ninth day of 
July, 1864, at Monocacy, or Frederick Junction, 
Md., the sun was well up his eastern way, when we, 
under Confederate guard and guidance, turned our 
backs on the burning stubble of the battle-Held — 
dotted here and there with the naked bodies of our 
comrades slain, and took a road of which we knew 
only that it led southward. I have since learned 
that it was called the Georgetown pike. It was 
crooked and dusty ; but not so much so as those 
which we had found in Virginia. A request to go 
out of the line to satisfy myself as to the identity of 
a dead man, lying by the fence, is refused by the 
philosophical guard, who tells me that I am better 
oif without knowing. "For if he is your friend you 



Note.— For the story of the author's capture, see " Recollections of Monoc- 
acy," paper No. 10, Third Series of these publications. 



6 FROM MONOCAOr 

will have just so much more to trouble you, and so 
long as you don't know, why you may think him 
living. If he is not the man you are thinking of, 
it isn't worth your time to investigate." Such cool 
reasoning as that I thought worthy of the Mussul- 
mans who burned the Alexandrine Library. At any 
rate my curiosity and interest were not satisfied. 
The ascent from the valley is gradual and as we 
wend our way, we repeatedly turn to look at the 
scene that is to be indelibly painted on memory's 
canvas. The river ; the railroad, with its iron 
bridge ; the turnpike bridge, now smoking in ruins ; 
the big stone mill, near whose base I heard the last 
order, "Elevate your pieces, men"; Colonel Thom- 
as's house, around which the tide of battle had 
surged the day before, and lastly, the wheat field, 
whence on that ninth of July, we had seen two har- 
vests gathered : the one in the early morn of wheat, 
the stafi" of life, and the other at eve of men, and 
the reaper thereof was Death. Every feature of this 
scene prints itself on our memories, till finally the 
friendly hill shuts off the view and we can now give 
ourselves entirely to our immediate surroundings. 



TO DANVILLE. 7 

Marching in any way, under a July sun, in the 
Southern States, is not particularly pleasant. In 
our own lines, where one could to some extent pick 
his own way, provided he did not straggle too much, 
a man found walking wearisome ; but under the 
direction of an enemy, whose march was largely a 
forced one, where we must keep in place and plod 
along, the course became especially tedious. It soon 
became obvious, however, that we had more friends 
among the people whom we met than our guards 
had. It was a very common thing to find tubs of 
newly drawn water placed by the roadside to satisfy 
the tormenting thirst engendered by the excessive 
heat. Of our approach, I suppose the people had 
been informed by the enemy who had started very 
early on his attempt to surprise Washington. The 
kind and sympathetic looks of many dwellers along 
that road, to say nothing of some pleasant words 
now and then heard, went far to alleviate the pain 
of our condition. 

There were between 600 and 700 of us, many 
from the Third Division of the Sixth Corps, and 
others from the one hundred days men whom Ohio 



8 FROM MONOCACY 

had sent into the fray. It was their first and only 
experience, and many of them were in for a longer 
stay in rebel prisons than their whole term of enlist- 
ment called for. Speaking, once, of the little aid 
afforded by them at the Monocacy extremity, to a 
Vermont soldier who did valiant service on that day, 
he very graphically replied, "Hundred days men! 
Pshaw ! They were only honey to draw the flies." 
I have many times since wondered whether I did 
just right in refusing a drink from my canteen to a 
tall, muscular Ohio man of the above category, who 
was marching unincumbered by anything save his 
uniform. "Where is your canteen?" said I. "I 
threw it away so that I could run," he very candidly 
answered. Moved by everything save admiration 
I assured him that he might run for his water. I 
know there was little of the Sir Philip Sidney in 
this reply of mine ; but unlike the case of the great 
Briton and the dying soldier, I did not think his 
need greater than mine. Our first halt was at a 
pleasant little village, called Urbana, where a kind 
citizen, perhaps Columbus Winsor by name, of 
strong Union sympathies, sets out several barrels 



TO DANVILLE. » 

of sweet crackers for our comfort, and bids us help 
ourselves. Many intervening years have not wholly 
effaced the regret that was mine over my inability 
to get what I deemed my share of those toothsome 
morsels, nor my admiration for the man who thus 
remembered those in bonds as bound with them. 

It was while halting here that a rebel major, 
mounted upon a mule, propounded to me the ques- 
tion, as to why the Yankees always called the South- 
ern soldiers "Johnnies." I assured him of my in- 
ability to ascribe it to any other reason than the 
well-known fact that johnny-cake was supposed to 
be the great source of life in the South. This ap- 
peared to him a not unlikely cause, and thereupon 
entering into general conversation, I found him an 
exceedingly agreeable gentleman. I soon learned, 
moreover, that personally, there could be ver}'' little 
animosity between the rebels and the men they 
guarded. The difference lay in the causes that they 
represented. 

We had gone only about four miles from our start- 
ing place, and the time must have been near noon, 
but the command " Forward " to a soldier, bond or 



10 FROM MONOCACY 

free, is seldom more welcome than the parental 
summons to arise in the morning is to the farmer's 
tired and sleepy boy. The country through which 
we were marching seemed a veritable paradise. 
Soon after passing through Hyattstown, I picked up 
a letter, written from Georgia to a relative — I 
thought a brother — in the rebel army. In this mis- 
sive the writer distinctly narrated the circumstances 
of several cases of bushwhacking. He set forth the 
shooting of unsuspecting soldiers by concealed civ- 
ilians, in one case an uncle, for which offence the 
latter was summarily hanged. He also told of situ- 
ations where he could have polled one for the con- 
federacy, but fear of Yankee vengeance, he frankly 
confessed, prevented. This interesting and valuable 
letter I retained for several days, till, fearful lest 
finding it in my possession, my captors might think 
it grounds for ill-treating me, 1 threw it away, first, 
however, tearing it up. In these days of general 
denials of all rebel atrocities and of sympathy with 
the Kebellion, such written testimony as the above 
would have a particular value. 

Our forward movement is unfraught with special 



TO DANVILLE. 11 

interest until we pass through the hamlet of Clarks- 
burg. Near the outskirts of the village an aged 
man is sitting at an open window, the house being 
very near the street. An elderly lady, apparently 
his wife, is leaning past him with hands extended 
upon the window sill. So dust begrimed are we, 
that I do not wonder at her long mistaking us for a 
part of the rebel throng which all day long has been 
passing her door. Suddenly light dawns upon her, 
and raising her hands, with an astonished tone she 
exclaims : " Why, they are our men ! " At once I 
eagerly ask, "Who are our men?" "Why, Union 
men, of course." Utterly heedless of the laws sup- 
posed to govern prisoners, we forgot our situation 
and laughed and cheered. But the nearest guard, 
not liking such demonstrations, thrust his bayonet 
through the window and thus drove from sight the 
good old dame who seemed to us, for the nonce, an- 
other Barbara Freitchie. 

Near here I picked up a copy of army tactics, pre- 
pared expressly for those desiring to be examined 
for commissions in colored regiments. I rememb'^A' 
well the thought that possibly, during the period of 



12 FROM MONOCACY 

my retention, I might be able to stow away enough 
military knowledge to enable me to pass successfully 
the examinations on my release, but this, too, I 
dropped the first time we were drawn up to be 
searched for valuables, not knowing how my captors 
might look upon a would-be officer among colored 
men. For aught I knew, the first man to throw it 
away did so for reasons similar to mine. To tell the 
truth T had several spells of carrying books while in 
the army, spells, however, that became much less 
intense as the heat and length of marches increased. 
I found many boys of similar tastes and experiences. 

Our first camp was south of Clarksburg, and as 
our haversacks, filled on the field at Monocacy, were 
yet distended, there was nothing unusual in our 
preparation of coflfee and consumption of hard-tack, 
nor in the refreshing sleep that soon fell upon us. 

All the way down our guards had jokingly told us 
of the gay time expected by them on their entering 
Washington, remarks that we took more in the spirit 
of banter than otherwise, hardly thinking it possi- 
ble that Early would have the temerity to beard the 
lion in his den. When, however, on the next day. 



TO DANVILLE. 13 

Monday, the 11th, we turned to the left on passing 
through Rockville, we knew that at least a feint was 
to be made. This was a little before noon, about 
the time that the Confederates reached the head of 
Seventh Street, and found that the delay at Monoc- 
acy had been fatal to success here, for old soldiers 
from the Sixth Corps had reached the capital in time 
to save it. He who saw and heard the strife from 
another standpoint may never know the relief afforded 
to the people of Washington when those veterans, 
bearing the Greek cross, marched through their 
midst. Never till then, I trow, had they appre- 
ciated the magic import of the figure seen by Con- 
stantine and which he followed to victory. In hoc 
signo, they felt that they were safe. What confi- 
dence the movement of well-tried regiments begets ! 
Taking the place of the government clerks, the hos- 
pital convalescents and the veteran reserves, these 
old soldiers were ready to give to the Confederate 
commander an assurance that he Avas not Early 
enough for them. As one rebel told me, the Union 
men were placed so as to completely entrap the at- 



14 FROM MONOCACY 

tacking force, and only luck prevented this consum- 
mation. 

But to my personal observations. Between Rock- 
ville and Washington we were drawn up in line and 
thoroughly searched. Money was the chief object 
of rebel cupidity, and all that could be found was 
seized. In expectation of such an event, the men 
having money had carefully concealed it, so that the 
net results must have been exceedingly meagre. It 
Avas here, thus drawn up, that I first saw ex-Vice- 
President Breckinridge. I remember him as one of 
the finest looking men I ever saw. His face was so 
classically cut, and his eye so piercing, at any dis- 
tance, that now, with an interval of nearly twenty- 
four years, I can see him as he sat his horse and 
directed his men. I remember thinking, too, that 
an ex-vice-president might and ought to be in better 
business than seeking to destroy the place where, for 
four years, he had been the recipient of so many 
honors. In addition to seeing General Early often, 
we saw Rodes and McCausland, who were the most 
conspicuous leaders in this expedition. 

The day itself was one of the hottest of a very 



TO DANVILLE. 15 

hot summer, and many, both Federal and Con- 
federate, were overcome by the heat. While trav- 
eling this road southeast from Kockville, we saw 
mortar shells sent up from the defences, and the 
curves described by them were most beautiful. 
Exploding high in air, at times, they gave us superb 
displays of pyrotechnics, though I must confess 
that our admiration was somewhat tempered with 
apprehension lest "some droppings might fall on" 
us. To be wounded or killed was not longfed for at 
any time, but certainly we didn't fancy blows from 
the hands of our friends. 

The afternoon was half spent, when we filed to 
our left into an apple orchard and were ordered to 
camp. We had passed Silver Springs the home of 
Montgomery Blair, and from the nearness of the 
firing I concluded that we were pretty close to the 
head of Seventh Street. I recall very vividly that 
several times during that afternoon, the early even- 
ing and the day following, shells from our own bat- 
teries went shrieking through the tops of the trees 
under which we were lying. It required, however, 
no fjreat acumen to understand that the Confederates 



16 FROM MONOCACT 

were not finding matters to their satisfaction. The 
noise of the encounter on the twelfth was great and 
the rebel yell, varied by Union shouts, seemed as 
vivid as ever. Our Confederate foes must have 
thought the Sixth Corps well-nigh ubiquitous, for 
they had left behind them the blue cross at Monoc- 
acy, and here they were confronted by the same 
emblem, though the color was white. The red was 
there, too, ready for the fight if necessary. Little 
did we think then, that President Lincoln was him- 
self witnessing the discomfiture of the enemy and 
the victory of our friends and comrades. 

The night of the twelfth had shut down upon us 
and was well advanced when we were ordered out, 
and this time our faces were set away from the cap- 
ital. By the light of Montgomery Blair's burning 
mansion, we marched away for the Confederacy. 
We then said that the house Avas destroyed in retal- 
iation for the destruction of Governor Letcher's 
home in Lexington, burned by Hunter ; but Gen- 
eral Early has since disclaimed any complicity in the 
matter. He has personally told me that he found, 
on facing Fort Stevens, that the purpose for which 



TO DANVILLE. 17 

he was sent by Lee had been subserved, i. e., some 
troops, he knew oot how many, had been drawn from 
Petersburg, and this very arrival, while it blocked 
his entrance, lessened Lee's danger. He had not, 
from the moment of finding Sixth Army Corps men 
there, entertained the possibility of getting into 
Washington. Opposed, as we were, to the cause of 
the Kebellion, 3^et I think we can afford a little praise 
for this affair, though an unrelenting foe, in his lead- 
ing his men by forced marches over many hundreds 
of miles, through a not over friendly country in 
some cases, down to the very capital of the Nation. 
Nothing but final success was wanting to make him 
the Alaric of the century. 

The morning light was breaking when on the thir- 
teenth we passed, for the second time, through 
Rockville. It may have been five o'clock, for I know 
the citizens were beginning to make their appear- 
ance, and one good old lady quite touched my heart 
when, through her glasses, she beamed kindly on 
me and in the sweetest of voices said, " Good morn- 
ing." How those two trite, commonplace words, so 
often misapplied, lightened the burdens of that long, 



18 FROM MONOCACY 

toilsome day ! It was a good morning to me, only 
in the thought that I had seen one kind, sympa- 
thetic woman who, as she spoke to me, may have 
been thinking of a boy of her own, possibly, at that 
moment in distress somewhere in this troubled land. 
All through the hours of that weary day, at high 
noon and at sultry eve, still rang in my ears those 
pleasant tones, so that even when our march was 
prolonged all through the night, it was still to me, 
" Good morning." 

We halted occasionally for rest and food, but 
nearly all the time we were in motion. The feet of 
some of the prisoners became terribly sore. Those 

of Charley R , of my company, seemed like two 

big blisters, i. e., as though the sole had quite sep- 
arated from the foot. Great tears would roll down 
his face. He couldn't keep them back, but not a 
whimper did any one ever hear from his lips. At 
one of our halting places two of our party, one 
being Lieutenant B , of Company B, of my reg- 
iment, succeeded in hiding in some shocks of wheat 
and made good their escape. Others tried it but 
were caught. During the thirteenth we found our 



TO DANVILLE. 19 

guards not quite so disposed to discuss the capture 
of Washington as they had been on Sunday and 
Monday. In fact, they were exceedingly waspish, 
and on very slight provocation shouted, "Dry up, 
Yank ! " 

Passing through Poolesville, in the grey of dawn, 
we came to White's Ford, on the Potomac, only a 
short distance above the scene of the terrible disas- 
ter of Ball's Bluif. The river here is wide and shal- 
low, affording an easy passage so far as the depth 
of water is concerned. But appearances are often 
deceptive, for the bottom of the stream is exceed- 
ingly slippery. I profited by the misfortunes of 
those in front of me. Many, trusting to themselves 
alone, would undertake the passage, but slipping 
upon a smooth stone covered with weeds, down 
would go their heads and up would turn their heels, 
thus giving the soldiers involuntary baptisms. See- 
ing many instances of this, I joined arms with a like- 
minded friend and thus bracing each other we made 
the transit, dry as to the upper portion of our bod- 
ies. This was (m the morn of the fourteenth, and 
soon after we went into bivouac at a point called 



20 FROM MONOCACY 

Big Spring, so named from the immense pool of 
water, tiie first of the laro;e number of ever-iiowing 
springs that we were to encounter on our march. 
It was nicely walled about and hirge enough for a 
hundred cattle to drink from it at the same time. 
Here we rested, and for the first time essayed to 
cook our own food, as our escort had been obliged 
to do all alonsc. When I contrast the living facili- 
ties of the Union and Confederate armies, I am 
amazed that the latter held out as long as they did. 
The Northern soldier, when he went into camp, tired 
from his two days' march, made his coffee, ate his 
hard-tack, perhaps gave it a little relish from the piece 
of salt pork that he hud in his haversack, and in 
twenty minutes was getting welcome rest from " tired 
natures's sweet restorer." 

But not so his Southern foe. When his bivouac 
came he had no coffee to boil, unless there had re- 
cently been a flag of truce, and there was no bread, 
hard or soft, for him. In the wagons were numer- 
ous long -handled, three-legged skillets, having 
heavy iron tops. These must be obtained, and the 
flour dealt out to them had to be cooked, each mess 



TO DANVILLE. 21 

by itself. As there were not dishes enous'h for all 
to cook at once, some had to wait their turn. In 
fact I learned that during a halt some one was cook- 
ing constantly. As they did not carry yeast nor 
anything like it, and as they had but little salt, it 
must be seen that their bread would not have of- 
fended the most advanced hydropath, nor have 
troubled a Jew, even during the feast of the Pass- 
over. Our Monocacy rations had given out and we 
were supplied with raw flour, the result, I suppose, 
of some part of the Maryland foray. Bread-making, 
thus, was a new experience to us, and we didn't like 
it. As for myself I must state that I gave up the 
skillet entirely, and mixing the flour with as little 
water as possible, adding what salt I could spare, I 
strung the dough out something like maccaroni, and 
having wound this around a stick proceeded to warm 
it through, holding it over the fire, rather a hot task 
on a July day. I may say that I seldom burned my 
food thus. I couldn't wait lono^ enouo^h. In sum- 
ming up the advantages held by our side, let us not 
forget to lay great stress on the superiority of our 
commissariat, and among the items there found put 




22 FROM MONOCACY 

among the very first, coffee, an article more worthy 
the praises of fiurns than the barle3^corn that he has 
immortalized. 

We rest, with no incident worthy of note save the 
artillery firing by Union forces on the other side of 
the river at the retiring rebel cavalry, till about mid- 
night. We are then aroused, and again go plodding 
along, kept w^ell in line by our flanking guards. It is 
barely dawn as we pass through Leesburg, but we 
are too sleepy and careless to note what is really a 
most lovely village. It is apparent that our captors 
have no time to spare, for they hasten along through- 
out the entire day, making no more halts than seem 
absolutely necessary. We bear a little to the south- 
ward, and finally enter Ashby's Gap of the Blue 
Ridge. The region is mountainous and wild, show- 
ing very little for the many years that man has 
occupied it. The outlook to the eye is grand, and 
repeatedly the observation is heard, "What a glori- 
ous sight this would be were I not a prisoner," As 
a soldier, it did not take me long to learn that he 
marches easiest who is nearest the head of the col- 
umn. Accordingly, as the days returned, Charley 



TO DANVILLE. 23 

R and I were found in place with only a file 

of Pennsylvanian lieutenants ahead of us, we yield- 
ing the place out of courtesy, for we were early 
enough for the first, but the easiest place, to our 
blistered feet, was hard. Again our march was pro- 
tracted long into the night. So sleepy were we that 
we could sleep even when walking, and many a hapless 
wight in a walking dream and thus, perhaps, falling 
out of line, was by the guard speedily " hurried back 
to despair" and wakefulness. It was for the guards 
themselves a trying time, but their sleepiness never 
reached the point of allowing us to escape. Early 
and his forces had gone through the mountains at 
Snicker's Gap, thus keeping themselves between us 
and our army. 

The hours of our night march wore on till al)out 
three a. m., when we stood on the banks of the 
Shenandoah, a name familiar to me from my earli- 
est boyhood, when I had learned the speech of the 
Indian chief bearing this name, but I had never 
dreamed of such an introduction as I was about to 
have. There was neither bridge nor ferry, and to 
our tired bodies the water had an almost winter 



24 FROM MONOCACY 

chilliness as we waded in. It was deep, too, we 
having to hold our heads well up to keep them out 
of the water. Drenched and dripping, we trudged 
along into the small village of Millwood. Some of 
us were allowed to lie down by the side of a church 
on whose corner I read in the semi-darkness, "Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church South." I may, I hope, be 
pardoned for having even then, a feeling of pride 
that the division in 1844 of this great church, in 
which I had been reared, was one of the prime 
causes in awakening people to the enormity of slav- 
ery. However, though the church was hot enough 
on this mooted subject, I found the north side of the 
edifice extremely cool on that morning, and I was 
no ways loth to move when at sunrise we " fell in " 
and marched over to a grove a few rods away. I 
was too tired and sleepy to eat, and all I wanted was 
a chance to lie down. I remember well putting my 
head in the shade and stretching my body out so 
that the friendly rays of the sun might dry my 
soaked garments. How long I slept I don't know ; 
but when I awoke, the sun, in his climbing the sky, 
had not only dried my clothes but he had well-nigh 



TO DANVILLE. 25 

baked my face, upon which he avus shining with 
nothing to intervene. "We spent Sunday, the sev- 
enteenth, here, and went through the usual routine 
of drying dough. Here I traded with a rebel lieu- 
tenant for food a pair of heavy woolen gloves taken 
by me from a vagrant knapsack on the ninth. I 
had kept them for just such a purpose ; but I had 
no idea that he would use them in torrid July 
weather. Imagine my astonishment at seeing him 
wearing them in the hottest part of the next day ^s 
we were going through Winchester, and actually 
putting on airs on account of his gloved hands. 

Monday we were off again, and I have since learned 
really going out of our way several miles to pass 
through the city of Winchester, thus contributing, I 
suppose, one to the eighty-seven occupations which 
that devoted city had during the years of the war. 
It was ten miles away, and we were marched this 
distance that we might assist our guards in exciting 
admiration among the denizens of the town. It was 
simply an illustration of a characteristic as old as 
man himself. 

What Roman triumph was complete without its 

3 



26 FROM MONOCACY 

crowd of captives ? The savage Indian led his pris- 
oners home that he might see the exultations of the 
squaws and thereby increase the story of his prow- 
ess ; and we too had to grace, not a Roman, but a 
Winchester holiday. For the first time in my life I 
heard insulting expressions hurled at us from female 
lips. Revolting to me, to the scions of chivalry es- 
cortinoj us the words seemed sweet indeed. It was 
here that my rebel Adonis sported his woolen gloves. 
Passing through the city to the west side, we went 
into camp, and soon had a little compensation for 
the rude terms launched at us during the afternoon. 
The officers of our guard undertook to billet them- 
selves on a family living near, at any rate within 
hearing. They were warmly received. In fact, 
nothino; but hot water was lackinor to make the re- 
ception scalding. The women, we learned, were 
Unionists, and they didn't propose to wait on rebels 
and they didn't. The interview was music to us. 
Within sight of our camp was the home of Judge 
Richard Parker, who less than five years before had 
presided at the trial of John Brown. 

The next morning we left this city of many tribu- 



TO DANVILLE. 27 

lations, and going out on Braddock Street, took the 

famous turnpike southward. It is the same road 

that subsequent events were to elevate into enduring 

fame, as 

" A good, broad Mghway leading down." 

To us it seemed the perfection of road-making, so 
level and straight that we were prone to say that we 
could see in the morning where we were to camp at 
night. Under other circumstances a prospect of a 
trip up the ninety-two miles leading to Staunton 
would have been delightful. The Valley of Virginia 
was famous the world over for beauty of scenery and 
fertility of soil. On every hand were indications of 
thrift. Large and expensive buildings and well- 
tilled fields afforded pleasing contrasts to the slat- 
ternly state of affairs in the eastern part of the 
State. Immense stacks of wheat attested the si2r- 
nificance of the often heard expression, "the gran- 
ary of Virginia." As rapidly as possible the farmers 
were threshing the grain, farmers we were told now, 
but soldiers when the work was done. This was the 
section over which Sheridan was to sweep and to 
leave it so desolate that were a crow to fly over it 



28 FROM MONOCACY 

" he would have to carry his rations with him." For 
four years the enemy had swept in and out, at such 
opportune moments as would permit him to put in 
liis crops, and hiter to harvest them. The ways of 
the rouofh-ridinoj " Little Phil " were not to the lik- 
ing of the people, and to this day they have no good 
word for him. In spite, however, of the brightness 
of the scene, the cloud of slavery hung over it, and 
men who claimed to be fighting for liberty were still 
oppressing the bondsmen. I shall never forget my 
astonishment at seeing at one of our bivouacs a fine 
looking old gentleman without a suspicion of the 
black race in his appearance, hesitate at coming into 
our camp. He appeared to be very much afraid of 
the guards. I accosted him in some way, implying 
my thought that he was one of the old planters liv- 
ing near. "No," said he, "I am a slave." If never 
before I, then, was more than glad that I was one of 
many thousands whose mission it was to make him 
and others like him, free. 

Of the many natural wonders and beauties of the 
valley we had little time or disposition to comment, 
though we could not help noticing the excellent 



TO DANVILLE. 29 

springs that this mountainous and limestone reoion 
afforded. One in particular I recall, perhaps near 
Mount Jackson, that poured from the side of a hill 
with volume sufficient to turn the overshot wheel of 
a grist mill located hard by. Doubtless it was sim- 
ply the reappearance of a lost river, a phenomenon 
not uncommon in such sections. Our usual camp- 
ing place was near one of these ever-flowingsprings , 
so that one essential to health, viz., good water, was 
not lacking. The villages, of which there were 
many, I remember thinking no addition to the beau- 
ties of the country. Watts' hymn seemed applica- 
ble here, for while every prospect pleased, man and 
his village works alone were vile. They were com- 
posed of tumble-down houses, not made so by the 
vicissitudes of war, but wearing a down-at-the-heel 
look which seemed natural, another of the legitimate 
results of slavery's curse. At Strasburg we bid 
good-by to the railroad grading, whose rail less and 
bridgeless track had constantly reminded us of the 
devastations of war. One village, however, held a 
bright place in our memories, for in passing through 
Woodstock, we saw two girls apparently in their 



30 FROM MONOCACY 

teens, sitting on the steps in front of the house, and 
actually having small Union flags pinned upon their 
breasts. We were not slow in discovering this 
patriotic display nor in making our appreciation 
known. To the credit of the guards be it said that, 
though seemingly much chagrined at this proceed- 
ing, they did not disturb the girls in their sympa- 
thy, nor us in our sentiments. This place must 
have a sort of political contrariness, for it is now the 
home of a Virginian Republican senator, viz., H. H. 
Riddleberger. Nearly twenty-four years afterward, 
passing through this same region, I found that peace 
has won for the valley great victories. Those who 
saw these villages then would not recognize them now. 
Progress has taken them in hand and thrift is evi- 
dent everywhere. 

Our guards I have thought a little above the 
average Confederate soldier, and in our bivouacs it 
was no uncommon thing for us to hold with them 
very animated discussions, always amicable, except 
when the negro was debated. On one occasion, 
words had run pretty high, when the gray-jacket 
thought to clinch an argument by the threadbare 



TO DANVILLE. 31 

question : "How would you like to have your sister 
or mother marry a nigger ? » There was no delay in 
bluecoat's rejoinder, "Well enough, if they wanted 
to, and how can I tell but what your mother did." 
There were a bayonet thrust, a sudden retreat, and no 
more argument that day. One yoangish guard quite 
made me homesick by saying in my hearing one 
Sunday, "Oh, dear ! If I was only at home down in 
Alabama ; wouldn't I take a ride to-day." This and 
other remarks showed me how similar in tastes we 
were and how absurd a war between brothers was. 
Personally I had very little to complain of. Once, 
however, as we filed into a field where we were to 
camp I laid hold of a piece of rail to burn in sub- 
sequent cooking operations. " Diop that rail," 
shouted a guard. I afi-ected not to hear or to think 
that I was not the "Yank" referred to and so clung 
to the coveted bit of timber. When, however, the 
second command came, coupled with a threat to 
shoot and the click of a cocking hammer, I dropped 
the stick. Just why he was so very particular at 
that time I don't know, for there was little hesita- 
tion on the part of friend or foe to burn the farm- 



32 FROM MONOCACT 

ers' fences. In fact, the rage of one Virginian 
planter on tliis expedition is vividly recalled. He 
came upon us and soundly berated the rebels for 
burning his rails, which he had only just put in 
place after a previous destruction by Union forces. 
Thus it was, as a Confederate sympathizer has since 
told me, " The Confederates robbed us because they 
thought we ought to be willing to part with every- 
thing for the good of the cause, while the Union 
forces took all they could get as spoils of war." 

There could not be six hundred and more men 
thus gathered together and no peculiar characters 
appear among them. Of our party perhaps the 
most conspicuous were two men of the "Ninth," 
known as "Old G. and T." Both must have lied 
roundly as to their ages when they were enlisted, 
for they certainly looked to be nearly sixty years 
old. They stuck by each other, making common 
cause against us younger men, but frequently quar- 
relling with each other. On one occasion our pur- 
veyor had dealt out to us a quantity of beef's lights 
or lungs for food. Now be it known that however 
hungry I may have been, I never liked that kind of 



TO DANVILLE. 33 

meat, but these two old soldiers would eat all they 
could get and would even fight over the division of 
the share that fell to them. So loud ran the discus- 
sion that we gradually fell to listening, and were 
not a little pleased at hearing G. say, "T., you old 
d — 1, you ! if it wasn't for exposing you, I'd tell 
this whole camp how you used to steal turkeys " ; 
and this shouted at the top of his voice. They 
never heard the last of it till prison rigors closed the 
ears of both in silent death. 

Eight miles north of Staunton we made our first 
camp at what was called the Willow Spout, a beau- 
tiful spring gushing out constantly from the side of 
a hill, and I have recently learned that it is flow- 
ing now as then, and still bearing the same name. 
Here a starlit night shut down upon us, cold as Vir- 
ginian nights alwajs were. M. J. and I made our 
beds as usual, with one rubber blanket under and 
another over us. The sleep, that tired youth secures 
so easily, speedily came and sealed our eyelids. 
How late it was that I awoke and found the rain 
falling pitilessly I have no means of knowing, bul 
the whole camp seemed aroused, and dripping men 



34 FROM MONOCACY 

were walking about in al! sorts of disconsolate 
moods. Some had secured a quantity of wood and 
had started a great fire, giving comfort to one part 
of their bodies at a time. Save my face I was as 
dry as ever. Drawing my head in like a turtle I 
flattered myself that I should sleep till morning and 
be not a whit worse for the rain. Alas ! About 
this time my companion began to nestle about and 
thereby to derange the covering. I besought him 
to keep still, but he exclaimed, "I am in a hollow, 
and a stream of water is running: under me. Can't 
3^()u move along?" To do this would simply put 
me in a similar predicament and so I declined. 
Misery loves compan}^ keep still he wouldn't, and 
he continued to pull and haul till in sheer despera- 
tion I sprang up, taking the covers with me, and in 
a very short time Avas as wet as the rest, which 
means that I was as wet as I could be. I then 
crowded with others about the fire, imagining that 
in our discomfort we were not unlike the pictures 
that I had seen of Napoleon at the burning of Mos- 
cow, our unhappy groups about the blazing fire sug- 
gesting that cheerless scene. Why some of our 



TO DANVILLE. 35 

men slopped around that night till they passed the 
weary and saturated guard and so escaped, while 
one or two fellows became the butt of ridicule among 
their associates for, wandering outside, they tried to 
come into camp again, but were hailed by the vigi- 
lant guard, who let them in only after hearing their 
piteous plea, " we're prisoners." Was there ever 
before such honesty ? 

The morning brought sunshine and in its drying 
rays we forgot the misery of the night. It was here 
that I found the first Confederate who did not use 
tobacco. Just outside the line he stood and prof- 
fered the weed for whatever the prisoners had to 
barter, and however poor we were it seemed as 
though there never was a time when somebody could 
not find something to trade oflF for this narcotic con- 
solation. I expressed my astonishment at his not 
using tobacco, and he admitted that there was rea- 
son for my wonder. He said he always drew his 
rations of the article and then made the most possi- 
ble from them by trading and selling. I didn't par- 
ticularly care to flatter him, but I remember thinking 
him the best-lookins " Confed." whom I had seen. 



36 FROM MONOCACr 

After a while we march out and are off for our last 
tramp before going aboard the cars. Of Staunton 
we get very little notion save the name. The train, 
such as it is, is soon in readiness for us and we are 
loaded into stock cars. So, in spite of ourselves, 
in one respect, at least, we go counter to Longfel- 
low's advice, for we are 

" Like dumb, driven cattle." 

However, after our two hundred miles walk, we 
were not fastidious as to modes of conveyance, and the 
most of us gave ourselves to sleep at once. During 
the trip we pass under the Blue Eidge by means of 
a tunnel nearly a mile in length. Just as our car 
emerges an axle breaks, and a long delay follows, 
improved by many in picking blackberries, whose 
vines, of the running variety, cover the ground about 
the track. Cups and pails, even, are brought into 
use, and our last dish of fruit for the season is had. 
Of course we have only a general notion of our direc- 
tion, knowing that our bent is southward. 

Late in the afternoon we pass a peculiar, wide- 
reaching building, which, from its pictures I recog- 



TO DANVILLE. 37 

nize as the University of Virginia, and I know that 
we must be in Charlottesville. Afar on a hill-top 
we can make out the home of Thomas Jefferson, 
known in history as Monticello. I think how little 
the threat Virginian recks of the turmoils into which 
his country has fallen. Within sight of Jefferson's 
" Pet," the universit}^ and almost under the shadow 
of his home, I sleep the sleep of the just, lying 
upon a chip pile hard by the railroad track. In the 
morning we resume our journey again by rail, and 
soon are going towards the south. This day's ride 
ends with our arrival at Lynchburg. The James 
River, wide and shallow, goes tumbling along over its 
rocky bottom, quite different from the deep and 
muddy stream with whose lower waters we are fa- 
miliar. We debark and march up seemingly endless 
hills. We go a long way to the outskirts of the 
city, and finally find rest in a large tobacco ware- 
house, owned then, I have learned, by Mr. Charles 
Massie, a man who lost everything in the war. It 
was and is on the corner of Twelfth and Polk streets. 
Along the way I note the omnipresence of the to- 
bacco trade. In aome places it seems to be the chief 



38 FROM MONOCACY 

industry, while man and boy apparently, are doing 
their best to make way with as much as possible of 
the weed. For the first time in my life I see small 
boys, scarcely out of pinafores, smoking with all the 
composure of old stagers. 

In this building we remain two nights and one 
day. Here I receive the only blow ever given me 
by a foe and in this way. In the night I arose a)id 
started for the door. " Go ])ack," says the guard, 
and he follows the command by a smart rap over my 
head with his bayonet. I had not noticed a line of 
men in waiting, behind which I should have placed 
myself, only a small number being allowed out at a 
time. Hastily retreating, I muttered imprecations 
thtit were not at all pleasing to his rebel highness, and 
he suggested shooting unless I subsided. I think my 
remarks were in some way to the effect that nothing 
would give me greater pleasure than to encounter 
him in some retired spot where the chances were 
more nearly equal. However, my feelings, more 
than my head, were injured, and they eventually 
recovered their accustomed serenity. 

On the second morning we are again loaded upon 



TO DANVILLE. 39 

the cars, and are once more nearing our final desti- 
nation. Now a road reaches down directly south from 
Lynchburg, but then we had to take an almost east- 
erly course, going through a country which in less 
than a year was to be in everybody's mouth as the 
scene of the collapse of the Rebellion, Lee's surren- 
der and the climax of Grant's career. We may have 
stopped at Appomattox, but I do not remember it. 
We certainly halted at Farmville, but so slow is our 
course in our rattle-box cars, and over a road that 
had long been a stranger to repairs, that it is fully 
night before we reach Burkeville. Whether our 
destination was Richmond or the extreme South we 
had no means of knowing, but when the train, after 
much switching, changes its direction, we know that 
we are to be strangers to Belle Isle and Libby, and 
so resign ourselves to prospects of Salisbury and 
Andersonville. 

But we are to be happily disappointed. AVith the 
first streakings of day, on July 29th, '64, we stop 
at a village which we are told is Danville, and we 
learn that it is the county-seat of Pittsylvania 
County, Virginia. Later we are marched through 



40 FROM MONOCACT 

the streets af what might be even to us, were we not 
prisoners, a beautiful phice. The flowers looked 
fresh and blooming as we filed along. They were the 
last I was to see that season, the very last that many 
of my friends ever saw. Feeling much as I have 
thought the caged animals in a caravan procession 
feel as they return the curious glances of idling 
throngs, we wended our way through the town, ob- 
jects of much interest to the natives, who rushed 
from breakfast-getting or eating to look at the first 
arrival of the live "Yanks " who had come so many 
hundred strong, to make Danville their involuntary 
home. Along the principal streets we go, till we 
file to the right and come upon an open square or 
plaza having large brick warehouses on three sides. 
Into the first of these, called No. 1, lying between 
the square and the Dan River, we are led or driven. 
As I await my turn to enter I have time to note the 
river, the cook-house near, and the building itself, 
three stories high with an attic, into which as many 
men are crowded as it can possibly hold. We real- 
ize that Ave have escaped something in not going to 
the stockades, but what misery might be yet within 



TO DANVILLE. 41 

those walls, the future had not revealed. In single 
file we pass in, carefully numbered, and are forced 
along, filling the upper places first, till the red ware- 
house seems crowded to suftbcation. Only the en- 
listed men enter here. The officers are consigned to 
another building. The last man passes in. The 
door is shut, locked and barred. Men with guns 
guard the places of egress even then, and, as never 
before, we realize that we are in Prison. 



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